World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The families seen here received a two-month supply of the basic WFP ration, very much welcome after the hard winter.

The people in five villages of the remote Rasht Valley in eastern Tajikistan had good reason to celebrate the annual "Navruz" or Central Asian New Year in March, as WFP delivered much appreciated food at the tail end of a hard winter. Five  "jamoats" -- villages -- in Rasht were cut off by fighting late last year between government and insurgent forces, and the people were caught between, unable to move freely, tend their farms or go to the market to purchase food. Once the snow and ice melted and the roads were again passable, WFP conducted a special distribution for some 4,600 grateful people in the villages, for whom the fortified wheat flour, enriched vegetable oil, salt and dried peas will keep them going until the first spring crops appear.
 

These residents of the Rasht Valley faced shortage of food supplies and higher prices when their districts became closed zones last year.
 

This small food distribution in late March of 2011 came both at the request of village leaders and WFP's own food security assessments.
 

Spring is coming to the Rasht Valley but the people still have several months to wait until they can grow fresh produce.

Thanks to the Government of Japan, the families will have enough wheat flour for the next 60 days.
 

For three months last year, Rasht residents were isolated, cut from telephone and internet as government and insurgent forces clashed.